Plant Based Supplements Raise Estradiol

Athletes that make use of supplements containing plant-based extracts often have frighteningly high estradiol levels. Researchers at the University of Rome 'Foro Italico' found that male athletes who take herbal supplements sometimes have more estradiol in their bodies than doctors deem good for women.

According to some studies, almost ninety percent of athletes use supplements, write the Italians in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. Among the hottest supplements are those that manufacturers claim have a hormonal effect, such as plant-based hormones and products such as Tribulus terrestris.

But are these products safe when taken on a long-term basis? This is the question the Italians set out to answer. They questioned 420 bodybuilders, 250 fitness fanatics and 70 cyclists about their supplements' use. All athletes trained 3-6 times a week, 1-2 hours a day.

The Italians found 23 athletes who took hormonal plant-based extracts and who were also prepared to undergo a blood test. The researchers found a dramatically raised estradiol level in these athletes [Figure below].

The lowest horizontal line = upper limit in men. Highest horizontal line = upper limit in women. Every figure on the horizontal axis represents a user. Circle = female user.
Among the men, athletes 2,3 and 5 have a ludicrously high estradiol level. All three had been taking a supplement already for six months containing caffeine, Citrus aurantium, guggul, cacao, naringenin and bioperine, the researchers write. It looks like a stacker; none of the other users has come up with this idea.

The Italians measured the athletesí progesterone level, and the figure below represents the results. The horizontal line indicates that the amount of progesterone that is considered acceptable.
Users 4 and 9 [not the users 4 and 9 in the figure with the estradiol levels] are noticeable. Both had been taking the supplement named above containing caffeine, Citrus aurantium, ginger, guggul, cacao, naringenin and bioperine. It would seem that this product contains substances that have a strong disruptive effect on the hormones.

Actually, it's not the only stacker that disrupts the hormone balance in athletes. The researchers discovered hormonal defects in 65 percent of the athletes using plant-based extracts. In a control group of athletes that were given no supplements at all, these abnormalities were conspicuous by their absence. So the Italians reach the sweeping conclusion that all plant-based supplements are suspicious. [Figure below].
If you read the research publication as a whole, however, you might wonder whether the conclusion is justified. The supplements users with a high estradiol level also used an extremely high amount of soya proteins: at least 2 g per kg/day. "Hyperestrogenism was observed in athletes who consumed high dosage of soy protein, the main food source of phytoestrogens", the Italians write.

Perhaps it's the interaction between herbal supplements and a high soya intake that disrupts the hormone balance?

Deceptive title and lack of controls make this study suspect. At least they mention the possibility of Soy being part of the problem though their main conclusion, that herbal supplements raise E, was clearly drawn to get attention.

This is a terribly designed study. Instead of isolating the possible source for the increased estradiol--as any credible scientific investigation would do--the conclusion of this study is muddled in vague possibilities: well, it could have been the soy-based protein which was responsible for the increased estradiol or it may have been one of the several plant derived substances-we just do not know which one!

Furthermore, there are too many plant-based substances in the supplements to know which if any is responsible for the increased estradiol. Clearly, the folks at J Int Soc Sports Nutr. should learn the scientific method and how to properly conduct a double-blind test which can focus on one specific substance.

The title had me really eyeing my bottles of natural supplements.
Then I read the rest and pffft.
Not even a controlled enough study to actually show anything specific.

And that little add in about the soy is really suspect.

troof.
garbage science...

but why the awkward attack on natty supps?
could it have anything to do with recent EU wide natty-supp suppressive regulations,
soon to arrive in a formerly freedom loving now financial fascist failed state near you?